“Just Tell Me What to Do” — Compressing Knowledge Into Directives

Wanting to be successful, I’ve always read every book I thought could help. Even if a book had just one useful insight, it was worth the $20 and my time spent reading and thinking.

A few years ago, I realized I was forgetting the lessons I’d learned from past books. So I started taking detailed notes while reading, saving every important idea. I wanted to permanently remember what I’d learned, and act on it.

I saved these notes as text files and put them on my phone, so I could review them often. Now I also share them on my site. There are over 200 books there now, with my top recommendations at the top.

When I’d tell my friends about a great book I’d just read, they didn’t want to read it. They didn’t want 300 pages of anecdotes, explanations, and supporting arguments. They’d say, “Just tell me what to do.”

I realized that for some things, I also don’t want the full 20-hour explanation. I’d be happier with just the conclusions — the actions — the directives.

For example, I’d heard great things about Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma. But 450 pages about the history of food? Eh…

Then two years later he wrote, In Defense of Food. It sounded like a tighter argument at 250 pages, but… eh….

Then he wrote Food Rules, a tiny little book that compresses all of his advice into 64 sentences. Yes!

It takes only 30 minutes to read, with succinct advice like “Eat only foods that will eventually rot.” and “Avoid food products that make health claims.” Each point has just a few sentences of explanation. That’s all I needed because I already trust him. But you can reference his previous book if you want the supporting evidence behind the advice.

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Compressing wisdom into directives — “Do this.” — is so valuable, but so rarely done. It feels arrogant and imperial to tell people what to do. Who am I to order people around? On the other hand, who am I not to? It’s useful to people, so do it.

I’m humble. I don’t expect anyone to actually do what I say. It’s just a succinct and powerful way to communicate an idea. Focus on the action.

Compressing all this wisdom into directives

So I spent the last few months going through all my notes for 220 books.

First, I extracted just the most essential and counterintuitive points.

Then the hardest part was turning observations into advice.

For example, this observation —

“Behavioral psychologists Stephen M. Garcia and Avishalom Tor showed that merely knowing there are more competitors in a competition decreases our performance.”

— turns into this advice:

“Avoid awareness of competitors.”

But what about this observation?

“Half a group was shown that extroverts are more successful. Other half shown that introverts are more successful. Then when asked to recall events from their past to help determine which they were, they remembered just the events that support the successful group they were told.”

How would you turn that into advice?

The result?

I’ve now got hundreds of these wise directives.

I tried turning them into a 30-minute talk for a conference, but it was a disaster. Fun for the first three minutes, then overwhelming. A 30-minute TO-DO list that would take a lifetime to complete.

I list many of them here, but I think a list is not as useful. I prefer presenting one idea at a time.

Maybe I’ll turn them into a book. (I like the title “Do This.”)

Until then, here are just a few “Do This” directives to get you started.

How to Be Useful to Others

1. Get famous.

Do everything in public and for the public.

The more people you reach, the more useful you are.

The opposite is hiding, which is of no use to anyone.

2. Get rich.

Money is neutral proof you’re adding value to people’s lives.

So, by getting rich, you’re being useful as a side-effect.

Once rich, spend the money in ways that are even more useful to others.

Then getting rich is double useful.

3. Share strong opinions.

Strong opinions are very useful to others.

Those who were undecided or ambivalent can just adopt your stance.

But those who disagree can solidify their stance by arguing against yours.

Even if you invent an opinion for the sole sake of argument, boldly sharing a strong opinion is very useful to others.

4. Be expensive.

People given a placebo pill were twice as likely to have their pain disappear when told the pill was expensive.

People who paid more for tickets were more likely to attend the performance.

People who spend more for a product or service value it more and get more use out of it.

These are just a few of my “Do This” directives. Like I said, I have hundreds of these saved up. I list many of them on my website.

Wanting to be successful, I’ve always read every book I thought could help. Even if a book had just one useful insight, it was worth the $20 and my time spent reading and thinking.

A few years ago, I realized I was forgetting the lessons I’d learned from past books. So I started taking detailed notes while reading, saving every important idea. I wanted to permanently remember what I’d learned, and act on it.

I saved these notes as text files and put them on my phone, so I could review them often. Now I also share them on my site. There are over 200 books there now, with my top recommendations at the top.

Originally a professional musician and circus clown, Derek Sivers created CD Baby in 1998. It became the largest seller of independent music online, with $100M in sales for 150,000 musicians. In 2008, Derek sold CD Baby for $22M, giving the proceeds to a charitable trust for music education. He is a frequent speaker at the TED Conference, with over 5 million views of his talks. Since 2011 he has published 34 books, including Anything You Want which shot to #1 on all of its Amazon categories.

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